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This is one of those observations that is both gratifying and wearying to hear coming from the mouth of someone else, finally—a sensation I bet many of your readers will share. We are ruled by KoolAid drinkers. Approval-seeking has beclowned the entire professional and managerial class to the exclusion of all critical thinking. From Russiagate to vaccinations to Medicare for All to BLM, the right opinion is the one that gets you invited to the offsite senior leadership retreat.

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Aug 5, 2021Liked by Michael Tracey

What that cat wrote in his email rings true to me as well. I too work a bit of a cross section of “hands dirty” and white collar/c-suite. My spouse is from a highly pedigreed university background while I’m what they call, self made. Everything he mentioned about elites and not thinking for themselves after some time is very accurate. They’re all caught in a box. None of them attained their positions by being controversial in the slightest bit. This is also an incredible problem in the military, but that’s another story, but still roughly the same - zero risk mindset and very politically intelligent. They have no idea what’s going on in the real world. Like, blind to it completely because they’ve homogenized their social and professional circles within the same upper crusts. Everything right now is very “royal” in flavor - benign talk about a topic related to social justice, and somehow that counts for anything about Britany Spears too, weirdly. But only politically correct convo, that’s actually incredibly shallow because it’s just a paraphrased version of BBC/CNN/MSNBC headlines of the day. This is the same community that is still unaware that Russia Gate was phony (I’m speaking from first hand experience talking with this circle), or that kids are at zero risk from COVID, or that you can’t actually dream your way out of being biologically male. It’s surreal. There seems no common sense. Not even a bit of intellectual curiosity. Perhaps they have grown up not needing that skill. Whereas there are the “lower classes” that move up and across the economic spectrum based in large part by applying common sense thinking, questioning a status quo out of necessity.

So the comparison between classes seems very accurate. The 19th century turned and the British Royal system began to fracture because of the rampant incompetence of a ruling class that mirrored, closely, our own elites now. The biggest difference that I see between old British royalty and our elites are how they attained elite status. In Britain it was a birthright. They were born better, supposedly. Here, it seems as though they are created in university. But the end result is the same.

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Where I work (aerospace):

Corporate: 83% with no masks

Manufacturing and Ops: Unknown with masks (high skill labor)

They wouldn't even publish the numbers for manufacturing and ops so you know that it is really bad. It was never really an option in corporate even though it was. We qualified ahead of public availability. They set up everything for us and our families. Just show up to the office and get the jab.

When I caught it from relatives, I had to report to the health services COVID Nazis. That was fun. They wanted me to send them a doctor's note well after I recovered. I just ignored them until they told me that I could sign a waiver six months after the fact. They were getting desperate to take me off the list.

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Let me add something else here to suggest it is even deeper than that, though I think the letter writer is spot on. Here is why Im not getting the vaccine (yet) and then I will tell you more about my peer group. BTW, dual income household over 100k in south MA but come from blue collar/low income upbringing.

1) Im against and highly wary of corporate media/government-sponsored medical coercion. It is bad precedent. Ill stand down.

2) Already had Covid.

3) No vax/no job; no vax, no participation in polite society smacks to me, and millions of Latinos and surely bible belt Christians of some nasty, Book of Revelations Mark of the Beast end times shit.

Like they say on Shark Tank, "and for this reason, I'm out."

In that regard, it has nothing to do with class. I wouldn't be surprised if some Catholic Hispanics also see the "no jab, no job" as straight from what they've learned in mass and the apocalyptic texts of the New Testament: "in the end times, no one will be able to conduct commerce without the mark of the beast." (Fun fact, I just got a new license plate for a used car. It was 666 - 1. I sent it back.)

For Blacks, my bet is No. 1 is an issue for them. They, too, do not like being coerced. Especially by a bunch of white liberals (see Malcolm X on what he thought about those characters...)

My oldest daughter was basically bullied into getting the vaccine by her classmates and by the administration at her college.

My youngest daughter is afraid of needles and Im holding my ground (as is spouse) so she doesn't feel like the last hold out.

Now for peers and family members that I know:

1) Ex money manager and family. Had Covid. Not interested in vaccine.

2) Business intel firm president. He and family not vaccinated.

3) Brother and spouse, not vaccinated. Sister in law is one of those non GMO types. Fit. Never even wore a mask. (I guess that's why we had such an uptick in cases. Her fault. And Trump's. Of course. Duh.)

4) Friend. School teacher. 50. Not vaccinated. Not scared of Covid. Fit. Doesnt have plans on getting it.

5) Friend. 25. Not vaccinated. Not scared of Covid. Fit. No plans of getting it at this time. Parents had Covid. Survived.

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Hi Michael

I think this recent comment from the UK also helps piece things together on the issue.

Konstantin Kisin* (Russian: Константин Кисин) is a Russian-British comedian and political commentator living in the UK.

I love his second sentence:

"Imagine you’re a normal person. The year is 2016. Rightly or wrongly, you believe most of what you see in the media."

His comments: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1422181544161128450.html

__________

*In 2018 Kisin made headlines when he refused to sign a "behavioural agreement" form explaining a "no tolerance policy" with regard to racism, sexism, classism, ageism, homophobia, biphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-religion and anti-atheism when asked to perform at a fundraising gig for UNICEF at SOAS, University of London.

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Here's what I don't get. I took the J&J vaccine a few months back, after researching the safety data and determining that it had the least reports of problematic side effects for my old white guy demographic. I don't feel any different from before the jab. If the vaccines work, then I've got nothing to fear from the unvaccinated. If the vaccines don't work, then I'm no less safe than before I was vaccinated.

The notion that masks are in any way protective is idiotic given that most mask are just thin cloth people put on to keep from getting hassled from other people who think they're "stopping the spread". Do people have any clue how many other potentially dangerous viruses and bacteria they get exposed to daily, mask or not? It's a very large number. That is normal.

The maniacal focus on COVID-19 and its endless variants (which is also normal for any virus) is really just another convenient wedge issue to throw at the public as a diversion and excuse to strip us of more rights, undermine the rule of law, loot the economy, and bankrupt the middle class normies, the group the ruling oligarchy hates the most.

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The author of the email has described it better than I did with a friend.

He said “You can really see the difference in education level <higher education corresponds to higher vaccination level>.” I replied that “I think it’s actually a difference in obedience level.”

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Your correspondent might have identified why top executives get vaccinated, but why the workers don't still remains a little mysterious. But her appraisal of elites believing their own bullshit and only promoting and mingling with other people just like them is spot on. Certainly very few of the credulous stenographers of the national media have ever been west of the Hudson, or know anyone who has been.

I'm a little shocked your correspondent even has data to compare, since I have always thought of someone's vaccination status as highly personal information. I run a small manufacturing business where most of my employees are of the working classes, and I don't know much about their vaccination status, since I never ask them; it's none of my business.

I have traded horror stories with two of my employees about the aftereffects of the jab, so I know they got vaccinated (one of them, my only black worker, for some reason waited until only very recently to get vaccinated; I must admit I wondered why he continued to wear a mask long after the rest of us stopped). I believe but do not know two of my employees are unvaccinated and never will be vaccinated, for their own reasons. I don't ask and don't want to know, but I am getting a very strong feeling that the rest of society believes it is my responsibility as a business owner to not only know this personal medical stuff but to act on it as well.

I am so looking forward to selling the company soon and running some little one-man business instead; or maybe working for other people again.

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I was fortunate to get off that never ending corporate treadmill many years ago. Healthier, happier with less income and more autonomy of thought and direction. I was just counseled by an old friend (who is a VP type and on the treadmill) about vaccine hesitancy, dumb Trump voters and then released from the bonds of our friendship because as a competitive athlete/natural immunity due to previous covid sniffles, I hadn't run in panic to the CVS to get the vaccine. Look at the data, make your own decisions and for heaven's sake stop listening to talking heads who ignore the actual data.

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On a similar note, one thing I noticed years ago was that almost all of the people shot by police were both male and lower class. In other words, the type of people who will talk back to cops and not respond well to directions. Obviously, this isn't 100% of the time, but near enough that it is noticeable if one wants to look as opposed to promoting a narrative. And with that information, I believe there is a very good chance we could reduce the number of people who are shot, if we were pushing class consciousness training, as opposed to racial bias training, which as we are seeing, does nothing.

But the complete refusal to look at the situation from any angle other than a racial one leads to a no-win for anyone. You could look to a second-order effect to explain the higher percentage of black victims, as far more African-Americans live in poverty and or working-class conditions, but changing the base assumptions would go a long way to lowering the number of these shootings.

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First a personal note to the emailer: I think your manner of interacting with others is remarkable. Its amazing what a little humility and active nonjudgmental listening can accomplish.

By choice I never worked in a large hierarchical organization, so I have little ability to evaluate that aspect of the emailers take. But it does make sense that the top exec's and managers would feel the pressure to conform to organizational norms. It also makes sense that some of the peons might have a passive aggressive desire to resist doing what their "betters" want them to do.

The most unambiguous group when it comes to this vaccine are the older folks like myself (age 64). I've read that nationally 90% of those 65 and over have been vaccinated. Since we're the population most likely to be hospitalized and die from Covid19, our own health and mortality is the overwhelming factor determining hesitancy or lack thereof.

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Identity has displaced class. That displacement has been a godsend to corporations and others because identity has not asked much of corporate business models, whereas class issues lead directly to economic questions affecting corporate behavior (any ethnic cleansing in your supply chain, etc?) and executive compensation and so on.

I saw how, in a very large financial company that all of you know, a diversity and equity focus and bureaucracy was effortlessly and seamlessly incorporated.

Critical race theory, whether in theory or praxis, as example, focuses on identity, far less on class. It's also interesting how the main critical locus against the identity-heavy "1619 Project" was the Worldwide Socialist Website....unreconstructed Marxists, because they sensed immediately that identity was replacing class as critical point.

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The elites despise the working class. If someone who hates you tells you to do something, you will do the opposite - its quite logical. The elites are clearly not acting in the interests of the working class having outsourced their jobs for example. With every disaster, war or banking meltdown the elites manage to enrich themselves at our expense. Every crisis is an opportunity, why not create them artificially? They can't be trusted. If there was a way to put microchips in the vaccine or have it rewrite our DNA we damn well know they would have done it. Those things are not feasible yet that's why I got it.

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From Michael's Twitter:

"Conversely, if your interactions with institutions have correlated with your life trajectory being stagnant, destitute, or otherwise unfulfilling, you have less reason to place "trust" in these institutions -- most of which are at the forefront of demanding vaccination"

This strikes me to be a broad stroke about who this demographic is. You will find those who are unfulfilled and unhappy in any profession. From my experience, those who work in these positions are no more unfulfilled than the managerial class is.

The reality could be the inverse of that. Many simply do not live to work. Those who buy into a corporate monoculture seem shallow and a bit silly to many of them. They are there to earn a living and otherwise, to live their life. It's a difference in priorities not quality of life.

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The email presents a very thought provoking take. As a physician, I have been interested in the relatively large number of healthcare workers that remain unvaccinated. As the letter writer describes, these people are employed by organizations highly motivated to promote (and now often mandate)vaccination, and they have daily access to medical professionals. My own judgement is biased by my status promoting vaccination to both colleagues and patients, but I find this an interesting sub-group to question as well.

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So... 50% of the country is made up of moron executives (VP and above) while the rest are enlightened hourly workers?

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